For the sake of ten I will not destroy it

Isolation and Naiveté Pose a Greater Threat to Haredim Than the Internet

Like the Amish, the very provincial world of the Hasidim and other rigidly Orthodox Jews is dedicated to isolating their community from the “evils” of the outside world. Haredim, Jews who reject the secular world, naively believe that they can quarantine their people from the kind of problems the rest of society is struggling with by limiting contact with the rest of humanity.

A good example of that naiveté is the position haredi community leaders enunciated for decades about domestic violence. “Not us; the Torah commands us to treat our wives with respect; our kind would never hit a women; that’s goyish mishigas (Gentile craziness).” But as soon as mental health clinics and shelters for battered women opened up specifically to serve haredi communities, they were at, or over-capacity.

As a social worker in the Jewish Family Service world for years, it was not at all unusual for me to hear from colleagues serving haredi communities about the chronic problems their community members faced with prostitution, pornography and domestic violence.

The latest skeleton peaking out of the haredi world’s closet that their rabbis refuse to acknowledge, is that of child molestation. But thanks to an open hot-line set up by the Brooklyn, NY DA’s office, over 85 rabbis, teachers and others in that borough’s haredi community have been indicted for child molestation in recent months.

It is expected that the 45,000 seat Citi Field will be filled to capacity for the “Jews Against the Internet Rally”

In a few weeks, New York area haredim will be holding a rally at the new home of the Mets, Citi Field. The rally is being billed as: “Jews Against the Internet.” Tickets for the rally are 10$ each. It is expected that all 45,000 seats of the stadium will be filled even though women have been officially prohibited from participating. (Why no women? a. Because unmarried men and women cannot socialize or sit next to one another, and b. The important decisions in the haredi community and in family life remain the exclusive purview of the men.)

What do the organizers of the anti-Internet rally hope to accomplish? According to one spokesperson: “This will be a mass rally never before seen in the history of Orthodox Jewry in the U.S. It will be a gathering of unity of all the Jews living in the U.S., a gathering to disseminate information and a prayer rally for the success of Klal-Israel’s (Jewish people) war on the Technology which threatens the sanctity of the homes of Israel.”

In the haredi world, any communication outlet that has the potential to either engage or enlighten people is evil. Unless of course you are using technology to make money. Then the internet is OK. But beyond commerce, any means of communication that would inform members of their community about real-people, real-problems, real-life in general, is prohibited.

The irony of this “We can survive and flourish by living in a bubble,” strategy is that it actually creates the ideal conditions for mental health problems and social dysfunction to exist under the radar of the community and law enforcement.

For your consideration, we offer this enlightening, disturbing column that was published in today’s Huffington Post:

Victims Protest: Rabbis, Protect Our Children

Posted: 05/07/2012 4:33 pm

Yoelly Twersky* grew up in the Hasidic community of Williamsburg, Brooklyn. His father wore a sleek fur hat, and his mother smelled of vegetable soup and rugalach. When Yoelly started eighth grade, his new teacher seemed to take an immediate dislike to him, striking him almost every morning.

“I thought the teacher knew what was best,” Yoelly says, thinking back. “Physical punishment was normal in my school, and I figured it had to be that I deserved it.”

Six months into the year, his teacher called him into the school’s boiler closet. In that dark dank room, the teacher pulled down both their pants, and raped the little boy.

“I was screaming the whole time,” Yoelly recalls. “When he finished, he went back to the classroom and I stayed where I was, in shock, gushing blood.”

Hasidic children are not given sexual education and Yoelly had no words to describe the rape that continued to occur for the remainder of the school year.

For Yoelly, those awful days were not the worst of it. A few months later, he found the courage to tell his father what had happened. His father slapped him and told him never to mention such immodest things again.

“That day was the worst day of my life,” Yoelly says. “I realized that I was all alone. There was nobody to keep me safe.”

The teacher who raped Yoelly still teaches at that school. As an adult, haunted by the thought that other children were enduring what he had, Yoelly sought a private audience with the grand Rebbe, or leader, of his Hasidic sect, to discuss the issue. After he told the Rebbe what had happened, the Rebbe turned to his personal assistant.

“He’s a shaigetz,” the Rebbe said, using a derogatory slur for a non-Jew. “Get him out of here.” Yoelly was hustled out of the room with threats of violence.

My story is different. I was the fifth of 11 children in a non-Hasidic ultra-Orthodox family. As a teenager, I realized I didn’t want to be as religious as my family.

“I want to go to college,” I told my mother.

“We’ll have you locked up!” she thundered at me in reply. My parents consulted with rabbinic leaders and by the age of 16, I was ostracized, and shortly thereafter, left to fend for myself on the streets of New York. I found an apartment and a minimum wage job, and learned to call a handful of ketchup dinner. Some days, when I couldn’t afford the subway token, I walked from Brooklyn to my job in Manhattan. But the terror of my parent’s abandonment and my community’s rejection was worse than any poverty. Naive and alone, it wasn’t long before I was found by people quick to take advantage of me.

When Ari Mandel thinks about his vulnerability as a religious child in Monsey, N.Y., it isn’t abuse or neglect that jumps out at him, as much as math class — or the lack thereof.

“As an 11-year-old, I was in school from 7:30 in the morning until 4 in the afternoon, studying religious texts. We had ‘English’ from 4 until 6 at night, but the class was treated like recess, and after a long day of learning, we had no patience to sit in our seats.”

At the age of 12 Ari was sent to yeshiva where he studied religious texts exclusively. That was the end of his secular education.

“When I got married at 18, we had to sign up for Food Stamps and Medicaid,” Ari says. “I thought credit cards were free money and racked up thousands of dollars of credit card debt. I couldn’t do basic multiplication or division and my English vocabulary was hugely limited.”

Ari went on to earn a GED by himself, at the age of 24, so he could join the U.S. Army, but he still can’t sign his own name in cursive and only gained a basic grasp of geography as he was stationed around the globe.

“It’s a staggering handicap,” Ari says. “When we deprive our children of a basic education, we leave them hugely vulnerable to abuse, poverty and even crime.”

When Yoelly, Ari and I heard that thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews from many different communities were gathering together to rent Citi Field, to address a pressing issue in the religious community, you might understand that we were frustrated — no, furious — that the issue being addressed at the unusually elaborate meeting was the dangers of the Internet.

We don’t deny that the Internet is a serious concern for a community that strives to shelter its members. But we do feel that the Internet should not be getting more attention than the safety of children.

If it were only Yoelly, Ari and me, we’d still believe that is cause for soul searching and reform, but our experiences are not unique. There are far too many stories like ours. Although some efforts have been made to address these issues, not enough is being done.

And so, on May 20, Yoelly, me and Ari, along with defenders of children from every walk of life, religious and secular, Jewish and non-Jewish, male and female, old and young, will gather outside Citi Field to raise awareness about the need to develop reforms to keep our children safe. Neither God nor Judaism is being attacked in this protest. This is strictly a message to rabbinic leadership to work harder to keep our children safe by ensuring those who abuse children are reported to the appropriate authorities, that families are supported to stay together even if they make differing religious choices and that children receive a basic education.

Although some worry that this protest is an inappropriate airing of “dirty laundry,” we say, when it comes to the safety of our children, we must be united and unabashed in our actions.

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The Guy Behind the Tent of Abraham

Mitch Gilbert is a social worker, writer, and religious educator. A native of Brooklyn, New York, he has done community development work in Washington DC, Cleveland, Akron, Vancouver, San Francisco, and Las Vegas. Mitch earned a BA at Brooklyn College (CUNY), a Master of Science in Social Administration degree from Case Western Reserve University. In addition, Mitch has done graduate studies in Jewish tradition, history, and culture at New York University and the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. Mitch is actively involved with in progressive causes and organizations that advance human rights, protect animals and save the environment. He currently resides in Columbus, Ohio.